The present disclosure is related to systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus. More specifically, the systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus may include one or more wireless electronic menus capable of connecting to a wireless communication network and/or a provider computer terminal. The one or more electronic menus may have one or more sensors and/or one or more communication means for communicating with each other, a server, a database and/or the provider computer terminal. The electronic menus and the provider computer terminal may be programmed with software for updating and/or reconfiguring the information displayable by the electronic menus via the provider computer terminal in real-time over the wireless communication network. The electronic menus may display information or multimedia data indicative of goods and/or services associated with a provider menu, such as, for example, a restaurant menu, a hospitality menu, an entertainment menu and/or the like. Users of the electronic menus may access the information and/or multimedia data indicative of one or more goods and/or services and may order the goods and/or services associated with the displayed information and/or multimedia. An audio output device and/or a display of the electronic menus may provide multi-linguistic texts, audio and video to users for the information and multimedia data indicative of the goods and/or services. Additionally, the users of the handheld electronic menus may access a history of orders for a duration of time or a session and/or orders made by a menu grouping However, the systems and methods disclosed herein are not restricted to restaurant, hospitality and entertainment menus and may be utilized to identify and order any desired goods and/or services to a user interacting with the electronic menus.
The systems and methods for displaying and managing the electronic menus may accurately track usage of an electronic menu by eliminating false counts and correcting for errors when the electronic menu is accessed more than one time by more than one user. The electronic menus may be associated with a group of users such that the electronic menus may display common menu content associated with the group or selected by a member of the group to each user in the group. For example, all members of a dinner party at a restaurant may access and view selections made by other members of the dinner party or a patron of a hotel, such as a parent may view a guest folio including spa, game room, bar restaurant or poolside purchases for other member of their party, such as, children. The systems and methods for displaying and managing the electronic menus may update the electronic menus based on a determination of an updatable state of the electronic menus. The updatable state of the electronic menus may enable or prevent one or more types of content updating for the electronic menus. Examples of the updatable state may include, but are not limited to, when the electronic menus are not in use, i.e., currently grouped or actively being used. The systems and methods for displaying and managing the electronic menus may provide a dynamic determination of a layout of a room of a provider based on the communication means and the sensors of the electronic menus and/or proximity sensors within the room. Advertising media may be displayed by the electronic menus, the provider computer terminal or by a remote computer terminal accessible by remote users.
It is generally known, for example, that a restaurant, hospitality and/or entertainment establishment (hereinafter “establishment”) provides a patron with a preprinted paper menu displaying printed text that describes goods and services available for purchase from the establishment. If the patron has inquires regarding the goods and services, the patron addresses the inquires with an employee of the establishment. Thus, addressing several different inquires of the patron before the patron determines which goods and services are desired may be time consuming and may prolong the duration of time before the goods and services are rendered to the patron.
Traditionally, the goods and services offered by the establishment may be sold out or no longer offered based on time restraints, inventory, business hours and/or the like. However, the preprinted paper menu of the establishments still include these goods and services which are no longer offered because the preprinted paper menus were prepared when the goods and services were available. In order to update the preprinted paper menu, the establishment must modify a digital version of the menu to update available goods and services. After updating the digital version of the menu, the paper menus must be reprinted and distributed to the patron. Alternatively, the establishment may utilize a custom print shop to update the preprinted paper menus. As a result, updated preprinted paper menus must be shipped from the custom print shop and delivered to the establishment distributing them to the patrons. Thus, updating and reprinting paper menus to accurately reflect the available goods and services of the establishment is a timely and costly procedure.
Additionally, there is generally a substantial amount of economic overhead associated with maintaining different versions of the printed menus for providing to the patrons of the establishment, For example, an establishment may realize significant costs associated with maintain different versions of the printed menus, such as, for example, lunch menus, dinner menus, specials feature menus, dessert menus, drinks and/or wine menus, late night menus, brunch menus, seasonal menus and/or the like.
Further, it is generally known, that an establishment hosts one or more groups of patrons. In most instances, each group of patrons may require a specific menu that is directed to goods and services indicative of the patrons of the group or the group itself. In any case, the establishment must update, modify and/or reconfigure the digital version of the menu to include the goods and services specific to each group and then print paper menus for distribution to the group. Moreover, if the paper menus for a group are printed and subsequent modifications are required, the paper menus must be reprinted at an additional cost to the establishment. Thus, preparing and/or modifying paper menus that are specific to one or more groups of patrons are also a costly and timely procedure.
Moreover, it is generally known, that in an effort to stream-line ordering of goods and services by patrons of the establishment, the employee may be equipped with and may utilize a wireless device connected to a wireless communication network, such as, for example, a personal digital assistant (hereinafter “PDA”) to take orders for desired goods and services from one or more patrons. The establishment provides the employee with the wireless device so that the employee does not have to take the order by simultaneously writing the orders on, for example, a piece of paper and then subsequently entering the orders at a remote point of sale (POS) terminal and/or the like. In an effort to increase employee productivity and efficiency and decrease error occurrences by the employee submitting the orders, the employee enters the orders of the patrons in to the wireless device immediately after the patron places the order with the employee. However, the employee is still required to spend time entering the orders of the patrons into the wireless device because the patrons do not have access to manipulate and utilize the wireless device themselves. Additionally, the employee is still required to answer inquires from the patrons because the patrons may not have access to additional information regarding the available goods and service offered by the establishment. Thus, the employee may be incapable of answering the inquires from the patrons without the aid of the wireless device.
A need, therefore, exists for systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus which may allow patrons of an establishment to have inquires regarding goods and/or services answered with information provided by the electronic menus. Additionally, a need exists for systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus which may update, modify and/or configure information displayable by the electronic menus in real-time over a wireless network. Further, a need exists for systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus which may provide sensors and/or communication means for the electronic menus to determine locations of the electronic menus, a patron utilizing the electronic menus or a group formed by the patrons utilizing the electronic menus. Still further, a need exists for systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus which may perform a dynamic determination of a layout from a set of predetermined layouts, such as table configuration based on locations of the electronic menus in a room of the establishment that may be detectable with one or more sensors of the electronic menus. Yet still further, a need exists for systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus which may provide information and/or multimedia data indicative of goods and/or services in more than one language as selected by users of the electronic menus. Moreover, a need exists for systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus which may prevent environmental pollution damage by reducing an amount of paper used for printed menus and/an amount of natural resources used for transporting and packaging printed menus for distribution to more than one establishment. Furthermore, a need exists for systems and methods for displaying and managing electronic menus which may minimize loss of goodwill by patrons that may result from a patron ordering a good or service that is no longer available.